Tibet postcard

[From October 2007.]

Expansive companionable valley embrace after the self rending chill winds up. Tenting away from roadworks, feels as if I’m witnessing a metamorphosis, or it was twenty years ago, or will be complete in six. The place, the pace, the roads, the running water and most of all the Chinese effort, since with enough presence the old patterns will just disappear. Never mind the soldiers or sacked monasteries or the forbidden practice. This is the transformation: metastasize communities, just be there, just laugh, open stores, and have kids there, and Tibet simply evaporates.